George French Angas (1822–86) gave up a career in business to become an artist, and his interest in natural history and ethnology is apparent throughout his work. In the early 1840s he travelled to Australia and New Zealand. His paintings from this period were later exhibited and formed the basis of two important large-format books of lithographs that appeared in 1849, having been announced in this two-volume 1847 account of his travels. Volume 1 documents Angas’ expeditions in South Australia, a colony his father helped to found. Angas accompanied William Giles into the Murray basin and George Grey along the south-east coast, and his observations include detailed descriptions of the way of life of the Aboriginal tribes there. The book continues with Angas’ voyage to Wellington, with views of Taranaki and the Kaikouras, his first impressions of the Maori (including a haka), and his onward journey to Auckland.
